


Practice

by RainbowArches



Series: Safe House [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 12:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6705226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowArches/pseuds/RainbowArches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The kids learn to control their powers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practice

Getting the kids to settle down so they could learn to control their powers was surprisingly difficult. They were happy to have powers but didn’t have the patience to master them, never mind the havoc they played with the electricity, the ventilation, and in one memorable instance, the plumbing. Ace was a little more cooperative. Luckily, being the oldest, the other kids always wanted to do what he was doing. Mike sat him down with a bowl of water and a thermometer and told him to raise the temperature by two degrees every minute. Soon the other kids were asking him for things to do.

“You’re good at that,” Akela said to him. The kids were all sat a safe distance apart and absorbed with the exercises Mike had given them. It must come with being a dad, she thought. Sometimes she worried she sounded too much like an agent when she tried to get them organized.

“Easier than toilet training.”

Akela snorted.

Nick joined them, clutching a file folder to his chest. “Anne sent the kids some activity pages. These are for Ace.” He picked out a few pages held together with a paperclip and handed them to Mike.

Mike flipped through them. “Hmm. How educational. These aren’t suggestions, are they?”

“I don’t think so. But it looks like they’re busy right now.”

All except Farrah, who was sitting and looking bored. Nick set her up with a couple of pages and a pencil.

“Still nothing from her?” he asked when he came back.

Akela shrugged. “Maybe not all Inhumans have powers. You should call Daisy and find out.”

Nick sighed. “Yeah, maybe.”

 

Jazz and Misha reminded Anne of herself when she was their age. Quiet, polite, studious. Shy around most people until she met someone she clicked with, leaving everyone wondering where all this energy and silliness came from. Jazz was a blur rolling along the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and Misha was bouncing around like a ping pong ball.

“Alright. Very impressive. You can stop now. Practice time is over.”

“We _caaaan’t_!” Misha complained, grinning.

Anne bit back a smile and told herself this _wasn’t amusing._ She was pleased that they felt comfortable enough around her to… well, she wouldn’t say they were missing behaving, exactly; come out of their shell.

“Yes you can. Stop please. Let’s not keep the others waiting.”

They had excellent control over their powers. She’d seen it. They were trying to get her to play with them, which she didn‘t mind obliging sometimes but generally preferred not to. They liked to make her try to catch them, which she never could. She didn‘t understand why they got such a kick out of that. Or they wanted her to pick them up, which was also impossible. They were as immovable as they were weightless.

“Don’t you want birthday cake?”

They stopped then and stood with their arms outstretched.

“No.” Anne turned around and started walking. “Hurry up before it’s all gone.”

 

They were going to regret this later, but Jasper doubted this was how Dylan wanted to spend his birthday so the least they could do was make him a cake, even if certain powers were a little more volatile on a sugar rush. They could handle it.

Dylan’s dad sent candles and a gift. In one way that was a relief. They intended to give all the kids who wanted one a birthday party but they couldn’t really afford to go all out. Dylan’s dad wanted to keep being Dylan’s dad and participate in his birthday parties. Jasper couldn’t say the same for all the parents. Although, who knows? Just because someone didn’t handle the Inhuman thing well initially didn’t mean they wouldn’t make any sort of effort. It wasn’t so much to hope for that each kid would get something from their family on their birthday. But they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.

Maria helped Dylan light the candles, everyone sang, and Dylan blew out the candles and revelled in the attention.

“Breath,” Maria reminded them when they started getting silly and put the kitchen in danger of various forms of destruction. “In and out. Keep it together until your outside.”

Then the kids focused.

“Can we play a game?”

“Yeah! Can we play with the parachute again?”

A chorus of suggestions started up. Maria and Jasper exchanged looks and then turned to Anne, who merely raised her eyebrows at them. The first and last time they’d let the kids play with the parachute had not gone well. But the kids had gotten better since then and no one really wanted to say no today.

“Okay. Settle down. Let’s go outside.”

 

Jasper, Anne and Maria made it until supper before they started to crash. Someone needed to check on the Romero family. Alisha was willing to do it but she felt bad about leaving the other three on their own after they’d done all the heavy lifting that day. Alisha had been on a supply run.

Normally Jasper or Maria checked on the families but they’d had to rearrange things today. Alisha rarely left the base but when she did it was just her. She never left any duplicates. That wasn’t very practical but she couldn’t let any more of herself die. Next time she died that would be it. She hadn’t explained that to anyone but she got the feeling they understood.

Anyway, someone needed to stay alert and watch the kids while someone else checked on the Romeros. It might as well be her.

It wasn’t often an entire family had the Inhuman gene. Luckily the Romeros were a small family so they didn’t have to be split up. Michelle and Paris both manipulated water. It was a fairly common power which they mastered almost immediately. They only flooded the house three times before they got the hang of it. Lottie, their daughter, was noise sensitive. She heard everything everywhere, all at once. She’d taken to wearing noise cancelling ear muffs and hanging out in the panic room to get a little peace. There still wasn’t silence but it was quiet enough that she could sleep instead of having a meltdown. Alisha felt bad for her. Teaching her was difficult when she was so scared of the noise. But they were getting there, slowly but surely.

At home the kids were starting to tire out. Alisha wondered if she could get away with an early bedtime. Her little cousins used to riot when she tried to send them to bed early. They couldn’t tell time but they _knew._

“How’s everyone holding up?” she asked.

“Goooood,” everyone mumbled.

“Tired? Time for bed?”

“Nooooo.”

She smiled. Bedtime would be easy.

Lottie was wide awake. She’d even taken her earmuffs off.

“Focus on one sound,” Alisha instructed. “Find something. A word or a voice. And focus on that. Don’t worry about the rest.”

Lottie closed her eyes and was quiet for a while.

“Do you have it?”

“Almost.”

“Would it be easier if we went outside?”

She shook her head.

After a while she said, “I have it now.”

“Good. Listen to it. Can you tell me what it is?”

“Someone’s singing. I think it’s a mom and a baby.”

“Good. Now let it go, but don’t let anything else in.”

Lottie took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then opened her eyes.

“Do you hear anything?”

Lottie’s eyes widened and she shook her head, grinning.

“Wanna go outside?”

“Yeah!”


End file.
